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Asian Awareness Week Activities Run through March 8

A variety of activities have been scheduled through Thursday, March 8, to commemorate Asian Awareness Week at Hope College.

The public is invited to all of the week’s events. Admission is free except for the Asian Food Festival on Tuesday, March 6.

The week is coordinated by Hope’s Asian Perspective Association (HAPA), a student organization working in conjunction with a variety of campus groups and offices including the college’s Office of Multicultural Education.

The week will begin with a Sushi Night on Monday, March 5, at 6 p.m. in the Maas Center auditorium. Attendees will be able to make their own sushi rolls. A free will donation will be collected to help a Japanese boy who lost his parents in the March 11, 2011, earthquake go to college.

Participants will have an opportunity to taste a variety of Asian dishes on Tuesday, March 6, from 4:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the annual Asian Food Festival hosted at both Phelps and Cook halls. Meals during the festival are $5 for those not on the college meal plan, who may participate at the Phelps dining hall.

Rooftop Pursuit will perform in concert on Wednesday, March 7, at 9 p.m. in the DeWitt Center Kletz.

Multiple panelists will share their own adoption stories and experiences in a discussion of trans-racial adoption focused on the themes of identity, environmental contact, systems of support and missing pieces on Thursday, March 8, at 6 p.m. in the A. Paul Schaap Science Center. The participants will be Robyn Afrik, a Korean adoptee who is director of Good Samaritan Ministries and a regional diversity advisor for West Michigan; Joshua Holwerda, a Bangladesh adoptee who grew up in Grand Rapids and graduated from Calvin College with majors in social work and international development and also graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary; Katie Bozek, a Korean adoptee who grew up in Grand Rapids and graduated from Hope in 2002 with a psychology major and completed her master’s and doctorate at Michigan State University; and Austin Roblyer, a Korean adoptee and Hope sophomore from Plainwell.

The Maas Center is located at 264 Columbia Ave., on Columbia Avenue at 10th Street. Phelps Hall is located at 154 E. 10th St., on Columbia Avenue at 10th Street. The A. Paul Schaap Science Center is located at 35 E. 12th St., at 12th Street and College Avenue.